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Not long ago, the QAnon conspiracy theory seemed to have lost momentum. Social media mentions had decreased. 8chan had gone offline. But since March, fueled by the pandemic and social media giants, the conspiracy has taken on new life.What’s responsible for the rapid uptake of the movement? And now that QAnon has spilled over to the mainstream, how far can it go?Guest:Ali Breland, reporter at Mother Jones HostCeleste Headlee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, the Trump administration used shaky reasoning to pursue additional sanctions against Iran. The proposal was rejected by nearly the entire U.N. Security Council, including close allies like the U.K and France. It was just the latest example of how “America First,” and the rejection of multilateralism under Trump, has turned the U.S. into a loner state on the world stage.Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s War Stories columnist. Fred is the author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the past two weeks, Belarus has been gripped by political protest. The country’s longtime authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, is courting Russian intervention as a worried European Union looks on. Guest: Julia Ioffe, GQ correspondent. Read her latest column on Belarus. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Getting tested for the coronavirus has never been as easy as it should be in the U.S. We’ve seen equipment shortages, long delays for test results, and even mixed messages about who should be getting tested.But there is a way to fix America’s inadequate testing. And experts say it could return some normalcy even before we have a reliable vaccine.Guest: Robinson Meyer, a staff writer at The Atlantic. Read his latest story, The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pandemic hasn’t stopped the flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. But it has prompted an emergency crackdown on asylum seekers, and critics of the Trump administration say the policy is violating U.S. law. Guest: Adolfo Flores, reporter for BuzzFeed News. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early days of the pandemic, countries around the world invested heavily in new technologies that would help track the movement of the virus. Now, six months later, contact tracing apps are all but an afterthought in the fight to contain COVID-19. What happened? The U.K. provides some answers. The country put its faith in technology to contain the virus, and paid the price.Guest:Gus Hosein, executive director at Privacy International HostCeleste Headlee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early days of the pandemic, countries around the world invested heavily in new technologies that would help track the movement of the virus. Now, six months later, contact tracing apps are all but an afterthought in the fight to contain COVID-19. What happened? The U.K. provides some answers. The country put its faith in technology to contain the virus, and paid the price.Guest:Gus Hosein, executive director at Privacy International HostCeleste Headlee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New York Attorney General Letitia James surprised many when she announced plans to dissolve the National Rifle Association. James accused the gun lobby, which is headquartered in New York, of mismanaging their finances – claiming top executives “looted” NRA assets. With the organization’s finances in trouble, and the State AG investigating them for financial misconduct, could this be the end of the National Rifle Association?Guest: Tim Mak, investigative reporter at NPR.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week in Georgia’s 14th congressional district runoff, a Republican candidate who believes in the dangerous and baseless QAnon conspiracy theory came out on top. Marjorie Taylor Greene is now a shoo-in to win a seat in Congress. How did her candidacy get this far? And what does it mean for the Republican party?Guest: Greg Bluestein, political reporter at the Atlanta Journal ConstitutionSlate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having the Democratic National Convention in Wisconsin was supposed to be a way for the Democrats to atone for 2016. Hillary Clinton was the first presidential candidate from either party to not campaign in the state since Richard Nixon in 1972.Wisconsin flipped from blue to red in the last presidential election as rural voters voiced their disaffection with the Democratic Party and supported Donald Trump for president. Now, four years later, the Democrats are hoping they can use Trump’s record in office to win them back.Guest: Dan Kaufman is Contributing Writer at The New Yorker and author of The Fall of WisconsinSlate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.